State labor board finds merit in Stoughton teachers complaint

Saturday

Aug 31, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2013 at 7:04 PM

The state Department of Labor Relations has issued a notice of complaint against the Stoughton School Committee, saying the teachers union’s charge that the committee and school administration moved to impact teachers’ wages and schedules without first coming to a bargaining agreement had merit.

Amy Carboneau

The state Department of Labor Relations has issued a notice of complaint against the Stoughton School Committee, saying the teachers union’s charge that the committee and school administration moved to impact teachers’ wages and schedules without first coming to a bargaining agreement had merit.

“Based on the evidence presented, I have found probable cause to believe that violations have occurred,” wrote investigator Nicholas Chalupa.

The union had filed the complaint with the Department of Labor Relations on Feb. 11.

The impetus for the complaint stems from October.

“Amid negotiations last year to set up a training schedule for a new teacher evaluation system, the Stoughton School Committee unilaterally determined that all training sessions would take place outside of contractual hours, and that teachers would not be paid for their time,” Stoughton Teachers Association President Andrea Pires said in a press release Thursday.

The union boycotted the scheduled sessions before coming to a tentative agreement, the complaint states.

School Superintendent Marguerite Rizzi, who spoke Friday for herself and Deputy Superintendent Jonathan Ford, declined to comment on the details of the case.

“This isn’t something that we feel is appropriate to argue in public,” Rizzi said.

Deborah Sovinee, who was school committee chairwoman at the time, said in an email Friday, “Nothing, in short, has been decided, except that a hearing should be held on the union’s allegations.”

The two parties must meet for a post-complaint hearing on an agreed-upon date between January and March.

The teachers’ current contract expires today. Negotiations with the union will be ongoing, Rizzi said.

Meanwhile, Pires, the union president, alleges that the school committee and administration continue “to find new ways to violate the collective bargaining law.” As a result, her press release states, the union has filed a new unfair labor practice allegation.